Last week, McAloon Productions announced the return of one of WCW’s most horrible gimmicks (and cult classic faves) The Yeti to the ring for the first time since 1995. But on Wednesday, Joey Janela did the proverbial “Hold my drink” when he dropped a huge bombshell about a competitor coming to Joey Janela’s Spring Break 3. Appearing on night two, at The Greatest Clusterf*ck, will be one of WWF’s most bizarre characters from the New Generation of the 1990s, Mantaur.
https://twitter.com/JANELABABY/status/1085718362804637696
He wasn’t always Mantaur. Hailing from Omaha, Nebraska and debuting in 1988, by the early 1990s, he was a top star in Austria’s legendary Catch Wrestling Association (CWA) where he competed as Bruiser Mastino. He signed with the WWF in 1994 and debuted as the Minotaur masked Mantaur, feuding with Duke “The Dumpster” Droese and Man Mountain Rock. By the summer of 1995, however, the novelty wore off and after a loss to Bam Bam Bigelow on WWF Superstars, he left the company.
He headed to ECW, returning to Bruiser Mastino, for a few events, before returning to CWA and Europe in 1996. In 1997, he briefly returned to the WWF in a new gimmick, as part of The Jackyl (Don Callis)’s faction, The Truth Commission. He was now called Tank and paired up with Recon (Bull Buchanan) and Interrogator (Kurrgan). But after two matches, he was replaced by Canadian indie wrestler Rambo (who was renamed Sniper) and once again left the company. He had a dark match tryout with WCW later that year, but he failed to catch on, returning to Europe and CWA once again. While he’s mostly retired from the sport now, he still pops up once and again – as both Mantaur and Bruiser – and on WrestleMania weekend, the legend of Mantaur will ride again!
